One pot synthesis of cis-bispyrimidodiazepinone derivatives via low-valent titanium reagent (TiCl4/Sm)

An efficient and convenient method for the preparation of cis-bispyrimidodiazepinone derivatives has been described. A variety of substrates can participate in the process with good yields, making this methodology suitable for library synthesis in drug discovery efforts. The mechanistic course of the reaction suggests the involvement of reduction, coupling which determine the products' configuration and cyclization by one-pot.     

Lanthanide radii controlled one-dimensional polymer and dinuclear complexes and their fluorescent properties

A bi-phosphonate ligand tetraethyl-(2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-phenylene) bis(methylene)diphosphonate has been designed and synthesized. The bi-phosphonate as a bridging ligand reacts with lanthanide nitrates forming four different types of 1D coordination complexes: ribbon polymer (type I), semi-ribbon polymer (type II), zigzag polymer (type III), and dinuclear-triligand short chain (type IV), which changed according to the decrease of the radius of the lanthanide. They have been characterized by IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The photophysical properties of Sm(3+), Eu(3+), Tb(3+) and Dy(3+) complexes at room temperature were also investigated. They exhibit strong fluorescence by excitation of the Ln(3+) ion absorption bands and the quantum yield values of Eu(3+) and Tb(3+) complexes are no less than 20%.     

Synthesis, crystal structures, luminescent and magnetic properties of homodinuclear lanthanide complexes with a flexible tripodal carboxylate ligand

Six new homodinuclear lanthanide(III) complexes with a flexible tripodal carboxylate ligand (H(3)L), of formulae [Ln(2)L(2)(DMF)(4)]·4DMF (Ln = La (1), Nd (2), Eu (3), Gd (4), Tb (5), Dy (6), DMF = N, N-Dimethylformamide) have been synthesized. Among them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which crystallized in the monoclinic space group P2(1)/n with a = 13.309(2) ?, b = 27.404(4) ?, c = 16.686(3) ?, β = 105.115(2) and V = 5875.2(17) ?(3) for 1, a = 13.3016(5) ?, b = 27.1952(12) ?, c = 16.6339(7) ?, β = 105.030(2) and V = 5811.3(4) ?(3) for 2, a = 13.2797(10) ?, b = 27.072(2) ?, c = 16.6564(13) ?, β = 104.9390(10) and V = 5785.7(8) ?(3) for 3, a = 13.2855(3) ?, b = 27.0074(6) ?, c = 16.6357(3) ?, β = 104.9790(10) and V = 5766.2(2) ?(3) for 4, a = 13.2837(5) ?, b = 26.9105(10) ?, c = 16.6066(6) ?, β = 104.917(2) and V = 5736.3(4) ?(3) for 6. The crystal structures reveal that these complexes are isostructural, and molecules are connected from 0D to 3D supramolecular structures by hydrogen bonds. All of them were characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, XRD and TGA. Unusually, non-luminescent Tb(III) complex was obtained. The photophysical property of the Eu(III) complex and the magnetic property of Gd(III) complex are investigated and discussed in detail.     

Free-standing mesoporous carbon thin films with highly ordered pore architectures for nanodevices

We report for the first time the synthesis of free-standing mesoporous carbon films with highly ordered pore architecture by a simple coating-etching approach, which have an intact morphology with variable sizes as large as several square centimeters and a controllable thickness of 90 nm to ～3 μm. The mesoporous carbon films were first synthesized by coating a resol precursors/Pluronic copolymer solution on a preoxidized silicon wafer and forming highly ordered polymeric mesostructures based on organic-organic self-assembly, followed by carbonizing at 600 °C and finally etching of the native oxide layer between the carbon film and the silicon substrate. The mesostructure of this free-standing carbon film is confirmed to be an ordered face-centered orthorhombic Fmmm structure, distorted from the (110) oriented body-centered cubic Im3?m symmetry. The mesoporosity of the carbon films has been evaluated by nitrogen sorption, which shows a high specific BET surface area of 700 m(2)/g and large uniform mesopores of ～4.3 nm. Both mesostructures and pore sizes can be tuned by changing the block copolymer templates or the ratio of resol to template. These free-standing mesoporous carbon films with cracking-free uniform morphology can be transferred or bent on different surfaces, especially with the aid of the soft polymer layer transfer technique, thus allowing for a variety of potential applications in electrochemistry and biomolecule separation. As a proof of concept, an electrochemical supercapacitor device directly made by the mesoporous carbon thin films shows a capacitance of 136 F/g at 0.5 A/g. Moreover, a nanofilter based on the carbon films has shown an excellent size-selective filtration of cytochrome c and bovine serum albumin.     

Rational design of 3D dendritic TiO2 nanostructures with favorable architectures

Controlling the morphology and size of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) nanostructures is crucial to obtain superior photocatalytic, photovoltaic, and electrochemical properties. However, the synthetic techniques for preparing such structures, especially those with complex configurations, still remain a challenge because of the rapid hydrolysis of Ti-containing polymer precursors in aqueous solution. Herein, we report a completely novel approach-three-dimensional (3D) TiO(2) nanostructures with favorable dendritic architectures-through a simple hydrothermal synthesis. The size of the 3D TiO(2) dendrites and the morphology of the constituent nano-units, in the form of nanorods, nanoribbons, and nanowires, are controlled by adjusting the precursor hydrolysis rate and the surfactant aggregation. These novel configurations of TiO(2) nanostructures possess higher surface area and superior electrochemical properties compared to nanoparticles with smooth surfaces. Our findings provide an effective solution for the synthesis of complex TiO(2) nano-architectures, which can pave the way to further improve the energy storage and energy conversion efficiency of TiO(2)-based devices.     

Synthesis of high-silica EU-1 zeolite in the presence of hexamethonium ions: a seeded approach for inhibiting ZSM-48

A seeded approach was developed to synthesize high-silica EU-1 zeolite via inhibiting the co-crystallization of ZSM-48 in the presence of hexamethonium (HM) ions. A systematic study was carried out to determine factors such as seed content and SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratio, which influenced the crystallization of high-silica EU-1 and transformation of EU-1 into ZSM-48. Using EU-1 seeds, not only well-crystallized pure EU-1 zeolites with SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratios more than 500 were synthesized, but also the co-crystalline of ZSM-48/EU-1 or pure ZSM-48 was obtained in control from silica-rich mixture gels. Furthermore, the kinetic features of the seeded synthesis of EU-1 zeolites with SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratios of 55, 190, and 500 were examined. It was found that seeds played crucial roles in the decrease of apparent activation energy of EU-1 nucleation and inhibiting the transformation of EU-1 into ZSM-48. The HM and Al species performed synergistic roles to inhibit the formation ZSM-48 during high-silica EU-1 nucleation and crystal growth.     

Crystal structures, lattice potential energies, and thermochemical properties of crystalline compounds (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH3)2ZnCl4(s) (n = 8, 10, 12, and 13)

As part of our ongoing project involving the study of (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH(3))(2)MCl(4)(s) (where M is a divalent metal ion and n = 8-18), we have synthesized the compounds (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s) (n = 8, 10, 12, and 13), and the details of the structures are reported herein. All of the compounds were crystallized in the monoclinic form with the space group P2(1)/n for (1-C(8)H(17)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), P21/c for (1-C(10)H(21)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), P2(1)/c for (1-C(12)H(25)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), and P2(1)/m for (1-C(13)H(27)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s). The lattice potential energies and ionic volumes of the cations and the common anion of the title compounds were obtained from crystallographic data. Molar enthalpies of dissolution of the four compounds at various molalities were measured at 298.15 K in the double-distilled water. According to Pitzer's theory, molar enthalpies of dissolution of the title compounds at infinite dilution were obtained. Finally, using the values of molar enthalpies of dissolution at infinite dilution (Δ(s)H(m)(∞)) and other auxiliary thermodynamic data, the enthalpy change of the dissociation of [ZnCl(4)](2-)(g) for the reaction [ZnCl(4)](2-)(g)→ Zn(2+)(g) + 4Cl(-)(g) was obtained, and then the hydration enthalpies of cations were calculated by designing a thermochemical cycle.     

Static Analysis of Properties of a Composite Slab Made from Steel Fibers and a Reinforced Foam Concrete

Mechanics of Composite Materials - The effect of reinforcement configuration (steel fibers and a rebar) on the mechanical performance of a multiribbed composite slab (MCS) has been investigated....     

Asymptotic Behaviors for Critical Branching Processes with Immigration

In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic behaviors of the critical branching process with immigration {Z_n, n ≥ 0}. First we get some estimation for the probability generating function of Zn. Based on it, we get a large deviation for Z_(n+1)/Z_n. Lower and upper deviations for Zn are also studied. As a by-product, an upper deviation for max_(1≤i≤n) Z_i is obtained.     

A novel memcapacitor and its application in a chaotic circuit

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, a novel memcapacitor is designed by the SBT ( $$\hbox {Sr}_{0.95}\hbox {Ba}_{0.05}\hbox {TiO}_{{3}}$$ ) memristor and two capacitors. A fifth-order memcapacitor...